Ventures!
4 months ago
– Fri, May 22, 2026 at 08:49:21 AM
Hello Super Storytellers,
It's Day 2 of the campaign, and we've already got more to celebrate!
Yesterday, we achieved our funding target in two-and-a-half hours. Today, just over 20 hours into the campaign, we unlocked our first Stretch Goal! Thanks to your support and the support of every backer who joins in over the next 4 weeks, we've given the Exalted: Essence team the opportunity to turn the guidelines and advice from this book into more concrete examples in a new Exalted: Essence Storyteller's Supplement.
Backers receiving the Exalted: Essence Storyteller's Guide PDF will automatically have this Storyteller's Supplement PDF added to their list of digital rewards.
Backers pledged to receive either of the Exalted: Essence Storyteller's Guide hardcover editions will also receive a code to order the Print-on-Demand version at a discounted price.
It's Day 2 of the campaign, and we've already got more to celebrate!
Yesterday, we achieved our funding target in two-and-a-half hours. Today, just over 20 hours into the campaign, we unlocked our first Stretch Goal! Thanks to your support and the support of every backer who joins in over the next 4 weeks, we've given the Exalted: Essence team the opportunity to turn the guidelines and advice from this book into more concrete examples in a new Exalted: Essence Storyteller's Supplement.
Backers receiving the Exalted: Essence Storyteller's Guide PDF will automatically have this Storyteller's Supplement PDF added to their list of digital rewards.
Backers pledged to receive either of the Exalted: Essence Storyteller's Guide hardcover editions will also receive a code to order the Print-on-Demand version at a discounted price.
ACHIEVED! - At $35,000 in Funding - Antagonists from the Blessed Isle
Exalted: Essence Storyteller's Supplement - Antagonists from the Blessed Isle - An Exalted: Essence Storyteller's supplement will be created, featuring antagonists that could be found in the Blessed Isle.
Even though we won't see any antagonists guidelines or examples until our draft manuscript for Chapter 3, which comes to backers on June 9, we already know that we'll be getting *MORE* antagonists in the future! I love it!
Of course, the next question is what to do with those antagonists? Well, let's see if we can keep the project growing and unlock our second Stretch Goal target...
At $50,000 in Funding - Adventures on the Blessed Isle
Exalted: Essence Storyteller's Supplement - Adventures on the Blessed Isle - A set of plot hooks, scenario ideas, and perhaps story outlines set in and around the Blessed Isle will be added to the Exalted Essence Storyteller's supplement being built by Stretch Goal achievements.
Pretty exciting, and I'm happy that we're all working together on this exciting venture. Speaking of... how about a sneak peek at our next draft manuscript tuesday download?
Ventures
Ventures are a tool to track the passage of time around connected events without getting as granular as combat timing. Importantly, a failed roll on a Venture rarely ends the whole Venture. This means Ventures let obstacle flow into the next, tracking momentum and the swings of fortune. Ventures are flexible. Not just a tool, but your tool. Don’t feel compelled to use them if they won’t help. In addition to advice, this section offers additional rules and options on how to use Ventures, expanding and modifying the rules given by Exalted: Essence.
Ventures in Play and Downtime
Ventures hold a series of connected “beats” together, helping a storyteller build each scene or obstacle around the approach a circle takes. This means that a table can decide to “zoom in” on an obstacle, turning it into a more detailed scene with multiple rolls. If no roll stands out as the “most important” in a scene toward a Venture, decide advantages, consequences, and success based on the narrative outcome of the scene.
At other times, an obstacle might pull focus away from more interesting moments, so the table might choose to turn it into a dramatic scene. Players can always use a Stunt once an interval has passed to declare a roll they’re making also matches a venture that’s going on in the background if they have a sudden clever idea or make a connection. Finally, sometimes you can even “nest” a Venture within another Venture, treating the “smaller” Venture as an obstacle of the larger one. (Use this sparingly.) For example, a Venture with an interval of “actions” to get through the cursed defenses and traps in a forgotten city might count as a single obstacle on a Research Venture which has an interval of “Sessions.”
Ventures in Downtime
Ventures can also be used to create a ”background story” during Downtime; the breaks between, and within stories. While scenes and stories are the highlights and moment-to-moment beats of the plot, Exalted are always doing something, even just filing out reports in the Celestial Bureaucracy, indulging in the spoils of victory, or playing a wandering hero in smaller adventures. Running “Downtime” as a set of Ventures can set up new characters, plot beats, goals, locations, tie up loose ends, set up the next arc, and depict the day-to-day life of the Chosen. These Ventures aren’t too complicated, and all have an interval of “Downtime,” meaning they’ll be resolve in quick dramatic scenes, and have around 2-3 Obstacles each.
Each Player should focus on a single reasonable goal for a downtime Venture, and work with the Storyteller to determine of it fits the narrative time available. Some goals may be out of reach if they’d be better handled “during” a story or would be otherwise disruptive. Even if an Essence 1 Circle has years, it might not fit to have them conquering kingdoms or overturning nations in narrative montages.
Setting up a Venture
Questions to ask when building a Ventures are:
- What is the ultimate goal?
- What is the scale? (Does this affect a person, a local organization, a city, a nation?)
- Who opposes this venture?
- How much time will it take, and how much time until the situation changes?
- What changes after each obstacle?
- What are the important locations for the Venture?
- What resources does the Circle have, and what do they lack? (Money, Soldiers, Exotic Materials, Political Authority, Access, Information.)
For many Ventures, Obstacles tend to fit neatly in defined phases. To create a freeform venture on the fly, default to 3 base Obstacles: One for planning, the second for preparation, and the third for execution.
Planning Phase: The Circle gathers information. Who are the important people or what are the important resources? What are the major threats? Where are they? How will they get to where they need to go? Often, failures in this phase cause unexpected problems during the execution Phase.
Preparation Phase: The Circle gathers resources and moves them into place. If they need labor funds or supplies, they gather them. If they need transport, they acquire, build, or charter it. Often, failures in this phase create penalties, or otherwise make things harder in the execution phase.
Execution Phase: The plan goes into motion. This is the part where they forge the demon sword, broker peace between warring tribes, or dive into the ancient tomb. Often, failures in this phase create additional Obstacles.
Wrap Up: The characters find safety, and bask in their rewards, or lick their wounds. The table determines what in the world has changed and move forward.
New Ventures
Treat Pandemic
Phases: Identifying Symptoms, Diagnosing the Ailment, Developing a Cure, Quarantine, Treatment
Questions: Who knows of this disease? What rare or unusual curatives are needed? Do your patients trust the players? Do you have enough labor? How fast does it spread? What will protect you?
Obstacles: Rare or Confusing Symptoms, Rapid Spread, Suspicious Population, Intentional Spread, Rare Cure, Squalid Conditions, Unaware Spreaders, Supernatural Origin
Assassination
Phases: Profiling the Target, Setting up the Scheme, Execution, Escape.
Questions: Who are they? What is their day like? Who and what protects them? How will you kill them? What is your distraction or alibi? What is your escape? Who will avenge them?
Obstacles: Reclusive Target, Supernatural Bodyguard, Demonic Protection, Body Double, Innocents in the Way, Protected by Traps
This Exalted: Essence Storyteller's Guide features a ton of advice and guidance for using the rules and systems to tell your epic tales, and these are just a few of the bits in a pretty big Ventures section that we'll see in the draft manuscript on Tuesday.
There are also alternate combat rules, which we'll get a preview of on Monday when we look at optional Wounds and Injury rules.
Until then, please continue to spread the word about this campaign. Everyone jumping in gets to read the draft manuscript, and we'll have the complete book on our screens before the end - before any pledges are processed or payments collected. And everyone who joins in will help us get closer to unlocking that second stretch goal and expand our Stretch Goal Storyteller's Supplement!
